JURIST Guest Columnist Stephen Vladeck of the University of Miami School of Law says that the US government's move to charge alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla and potentially moot his pending appeal to the US Supreme Court against his status as uncharged enemy combatant may leave intact the problematic Fourth Circuit ruling broadly endorsing the [...]

Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, November 20, 2005 . Read the full text of the document .

The US Commerce Department said on Tuesday that it will comply with a NAFTA ruling to reduce duties it placed on softwood lumber from Canada although emphasizing its disagreement with the ruling. According to the department, duties on lumber will be reduced from 16 percent to slightly below 1 percent under the ruling, although the [...]

Two men have been charged for leaking a UK government memo that led to a newspaper report Tuesday that said UK Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked President Bush out of bombing the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera . The memo, which reportedly was a transcription of a conversation between the two leaders in the spring [...]

Organizers of a gay rights parade in Poland on Tuesday sued the mayor of Poznan for banning the event. The group has alleged that the ban violated their right to freedom of assembly and expression. Despite the ban, several hundred gay rights advocates held a rally in Poznan that ultimately drew large protests by right-wing [...]

The US on Tuesday threatened to hold up approval of a two-year UN budget unless reforms agreed to in September were acted on by the end of the year. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the reform proposals would not be ready for action until February, according to US Ambassador John Bolton , who said waiting [...]

Mexico's National Commission for Human Rights on Tuesday said that the country's police and prosecutors continue to use torture despite pledges by President Vicente Fox to halt such tactics. Jose Luis Soberanes , president of the commission, said that officials were increasingly resorting to psychological rather than physical forms of torture. He urged the government [...]

The Uzbekistan Supreme Court Tuesday took the remarkable step of issuing a statement defending its recently-concluded trial of 15 individuals accused of leading a May, 2005 uprising in the town of Andijan which led to the 15 being sentenced to 14 to 20 years in prison . Responding to international criticism and expressions of concern [...]

The Texas Supreme Court Tuesday declared a statewide property tax unconstitutional because it sets a cap limit that most school districts are at or near already. The ruling partly affirmed and partly reversed a prior decision by District Judge John Dietz which also held that the finance system does not provide equal funding to both [...]

The US Education Department on Tuesday planned to send to states initiatives easing some requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) , which educators have roundly criticized for its rigidity. In an effort to gain approval and to thwart congressional attempts to amend the law, the Department will allow as many [...]